Douglas Bradford telling the audience that he is innocent, that he did not murder Lynn Knight. Bradford was sentenced to 26 years to life at Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center Friday, December 12, 2014. Defence attorney Robert Shapiro argued for a new trial by was denied by Judge Curtis B Rappe. (Walt Mancini / Staff Photographer)

An Orange County engineer convicted of killing a Torrance nurse he dated 35 years ago emphatically denied committing the crime Friday shortly before a judge sentenced him to 26 years to life in prison.

Douglas Gordon Bradford, who turns 63 on Saturday, called his conviction for the Aug. 29, 1979, slaying of Lynne Knight a “terrible injustice” when given the opportunity to speak in Los Angeles Superior Court.

“The murder of Lynne Knight is a terrible tragedy,” Bradford said, turning to Knight’s family in the audience. “I want you to hear me very clearly now … I did not murder Lynn Knight. … I am an innocent man, wrongly convicted. I’m mad as hell. I’m paying for somebody else’s crime. This is a horrendous, horrendous miscarriage of justice.”

For Knight’s family, Bradford’s sentencing brought relief from decades of pain knowing the man always suspected of killing her walked freely, building a business and living comfortably in Costa Mesa. Torrance detectives considered him the prime suspect from the start, but did not build enough evidence to prosecute him until they reopened the case in the early 2000s and worked on it until his arrest in 2009. Bradford was then free on $1 million bail until his conviction July 24.

“It’s sad because Lynne is not going to walk in the door. That’s where the bittersweet part comes,” said Knight’s sister, Donna Wigmore. “At least now there is a release, because I really feel her soul hasn’t rested. This will allow her to rest.”

Bradford, a Cal State Long Beach student at the time, always claimed he was sailing off Long Beach the night Knight was killed. He and Knight, a 28-year-old neonatal nurse at Little Company of Mary Hospital, who had just moved from Canada to live in Southern California, met while skiing and dated for a few months. Prosecutors said he became serious, but Knight wasn’t interested. She continued to date other men.

Neighbors heard screaming the night she died in her Anza Avenue apartment. Police found a homemade garrote made from wood dowels and picture-hanging wire under her body. Her killer wrapped the garrote around her throat, then straddled her body and stabbed her repeatedly.

Deputy District Attorney John Lewin and his colleague, Ethan Milius, portrayed Bradford as an angry, jilted boyfriend, upset that she was dating other men. Witnesses said they saw him drive past her apartment after the breakup. On one occasion, Bradford burst inside as she entertained another man, called her a whore and threw a lamp at her.

Bradford was supposed to accompany Knight to her younger sister’s wedding the week she died. Knight was to be maid of honor. The crumpled wedding invitation was found in a wastebasket at the murder scene.

New investigation determined that the wire used to choke Knight was the same kind Bradford’s mother used to display her paintings at home. The paintings were still on the walls when police reopened the case. His mother also used wood dowels as door and window jambs in her house.

Although he claimed he was sailing at 10:30 at night, prosecutors presented testimony showing there was no wind that night.

“This man walked around for 30 years having committed one of the most heinous, brutal murders I have seen in my career,” Lewin said Friday. “He earned his conviction. He’s sitting here, it’s 30 years too late, but it’s the best we can do.”

In court Friday, Wigmore and her brother, Harold Knight, described how their sister’s slaying affected them and their parents.

Wigmore said she was planning her wedding and waiting for her sister’s arrival when she received the call that Lynne Knight was murdered.

“I entered the worst nightmare of my life that would last 35 years,” Wigmore said. “I was given a life sentence, shackled by chronic pain in every dimension of my life.”

Instead of going on with her wedding, Wigmore helped plan a funeral.

“Losing her in such a horrible, horrific way was absolutely terrible,” she said. “The shock that went through me was like being hit by a cannonball. … I have cried an ocean of tears for decades. Losing Lynne like this has been the most negative, life-altering experience that any loving sister can be subjected to, especially when it was way beyond an intentional crime. It was a heinous crime.”

Wigmore said she lived in shock for years, “walking around like a robot with a large boulder” on her chest.

“It took me 18 years before I could even say Lynne’s name without tearing up or crying,” she said. “I have been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. I am always fighting it, the depression, the anger and grief.”

Harold Knight told the court his sister’s death was probably the reason he never married. He said he never felt close to anyone. Outside court, he said he has never forgotten walking into the bloody apartment and later revisiting the crime scene, and shaking.

In a letter read in court by Wigmore, Lynne Knight’s father, Clair Knight, said her death shortened his wife’s life.

“We lost our first-born daughter. We lost our future,” he wrote. “We lost any children of Lynne’s. We lost a son-in-law. We never got to visit her home with her family and to do fun things with them. We lost all our hopes and dreams for Lynne and with Lynne.”

Bradford’s attorney, Robert Shapiro, said he planned to appeal. Shapiro argued in court Friday that Bradford did not get a fair trial because witnesses and some evidence were not available from 35 years ago.

Larry Altman has covered crime and court proceedings in Southern California since 1987. A graduate of Cal State Northridge, where he served as editor of the college newspaper, Altman has worked for the Daily Breeze since 1990. The Society of Professional Journalists named him a "Distinguished Journalist" in Los Angeles in 2006. Altman's work was featured twice on CBS' “48 Hours” and he appeared eight times with “Nancy Grace," who called him "dear." He has covered hundreds of homicides and many trials. Altman has crawled through a mausoleum to open a coffin, confronted husbands who killed their wives, wives who killed their husbands, and his coverage helped put a child molester and a murderer in prison. In his spare time, Altman is an avid Los Angeles Lakers and Dodgers fan, is the commissioner of a Fantasy Baseball league with several other current and former newspapermen, runs a real estate empire and likes to watch old movies on TCM.